Essex County herald. [volume] (Guildhall, Vt.) 1873-1964, 1887-05-20
REV. DIR. TALMAGE.
THE BROOKLYN DIVINE'S SUM-
DAY SERMON
Subject: "sprig of Hcart's-Ease.

pace. 10 appeaSe reNengetul woman,
King Herod ordered the death of that noble,
self-sacriicing Christian, John the Baptist
The group of the disciples were thrown into
grief and dismay. They felt themselves ut
terly dsfenseleSS. There was no authority to
which they could appeal, and yet grief must
always find expression. If there be no human
ear to hear it, then the agonizei soul will cry
it aloud to the winds and the woods and the
waters. But there was an ear that was
willing to listen. There is q tender pa
thOs, and at the same time a most admi-
rable picture in the words of my text They
went and told Jesus He could understand
all their grief, and He Immediately soothed
it. Our burdens are not more than half SO
heavy to carry if another shoulder is thrust
under the other end of them. Here we find
Christ His brow Swallowed with grief, stand
ing amid the group of disciples, who, with
tears and violent geSticulations, and wiring
ing of hands, and cutlery of bereavement, arc
expressing their woe. Raphael, with his
slzillful brush putting upon the wall of a
palace some scene of sacred story, gave not so
skillful stroke as when the plain hand of the
evangelist writes: They went and told
Jesus"
The old Goths and Vandals once came
down upon Italy from the north of Europe,
and they upset the gardens, and they broke
down the affairs, and swept away everything
that was good and beautiful. So there is
ever and anon in the history of all the sons
and daughters of OR race an incursion of
rough-handed troubles that coma to plumber
and ransack and put to the torch all that
men highly prize. There is no cave so deeply
cleft into the mountains as to allow us shell
ter, and the foot of fleetest courser cannot
bear us beyond the quick pursuit The ar
rows they put to the strings fly with unerring
dart, until we fail pierced and stunned
feel that | bring to you most appropri-
Rte message | mean to bind up all your
G. ..N, n,,n
with a spark from Gods altar. The same
prescription that cured the sorrow of the dis
ciples will cure all your heartaches. | have
read that when Godfrey and his army marched
out to capture Jerusalem, as they came over
the hills, at the first flash of the pinnacleS of
that beautiful city, the army that had
marched in silence lifted n shout that made
the earth trembe. Oh, you soldiers Of Jesus
Christ, marching on toward heaven, | would
that to-day, by some CLEAN from the palace of
Gods mercy and Gods strength, you might
be lifted into great rejoicing and that before
this service is ended you might raise one glad
hosanna to the Lord!
In the first place, commend the behavior
of these disciples to all those in this audience
who are sinful and unpardoned. There comes
time in almost every mans history when he
feels from some source that he has All eI1ing
nature The thought may not have such heft
as to fell him. 1t may be only like the flash
in an evening cloud just after very hot sum
mer day. One man to get rid of that impress
sion will go to prayer; another will stimulates
himself by ardent spirits, and another man
will dive deeper i'll secularities. But some
hines a man cannot get rid of these impress
sions The fact is, when mtlu finds out that
his eternity is poised upon a perfect uncer
tainty, and that the next moment his foot
may slip, he must do something violent to
make himself forget where he stands, or else
fly for refuge.
Ii there are any here who have resolved
that they would rather die of this awful can
Ger of sin than to have the heavenly surgeon
cut it out, let me say, my dear brother, you
mingle for yourself bitter cup. You fly in
the face of your everlasting interests. You
crouch under yoke and you bite the dust,
when, this moment, you might rise up a
crowned conquerer. Driven and perp,exed
and harasSed as you have been by sin, go and
tell Jesus. To relax the grip of death from
your soul, and plant your unshackled feet
upon the golden throne, Christ let the
fortunes of the bloody mount transfiX Him
With the beam of His own cross He will
break down the door of your dungeon
From the thorns of His own crown He will
pick enough gems to make your brow blaze
with eternal victory. In every tear on His
wet cheek; in every cash of His side; in
every long, blackening mark of laceration
from shoulder to shoulder; in the grave
SCATTERING, heaven storming death groan, l
hear Him say: g Him that cometh unto Me,
will in no wise cast out"
sob, " but you say, ''instead of curing my
wound you want to make another wound,
namely: That of convictionm Have You
never known surgeon to come and find a
chronic disease, and then with sharp caustic
burn it all out? So the grace Of God comes
to the old sore of sin. 1t has long been rank
ling there, but by divine grace it is burned
out through these fires of conviction; 1.-THE
flesh coming again as the flesh of little
child" where sin abounded grace much
more aboundeth." With the ten thousand
unpardoned sins of your life, go and tell
Jesus. You will never get rid of your sins in
any other way: and remember that the broad
invitation which extend to you will not al
ways be extended.
King Alfred, before modern time-pieoes
were invented, used to divide the day into
three parts, eight hours each, and then had
three wax candles. BY the time the first
candle had burned to the socket, eight hours
had gone, and when the second candle had
burned to the socket, another eight hours had
gone, and when all the three candles were
gone out, then the day had passed. Oh, that
some of us instead of calculating our days,
and nights, and years by any earthly time
piece, might calculate them by the numbers
of opportunities and mercies which are burn
ing down and burning out, never to be
relighted, lest at last we be amid the foolish
virgins who cried: Our lamps have gone
outm
Again: | commend the behavior of the dis
ciples to all who are tempted | have heard
men in mid-life say they had never been led
into temptation. If you have not felt tempta-
ton it is because YOU have not tried to do
right. A man hoppled and handcuffed, as
long as he lies quietly, does not test the power
of the chain; but when he rises up, and with
the determination resolves to snap the hand
cuff or break the hopple, then he finds the
power of the iron. And there are men who
have been for ten, and twenty, and thirty
years bound hand and foot by evil
habits who have never felt the power
of the chain, because they have never tried
to break it, 1t is very easy to go on down with
tho stream and with the wind lying on your
oars, but just turn round, and try to go
against the wind and the tide, and you will
find it is different matter As long as we
go down the current of our evil habit we seem
to get along quite smoothly; bat if after q
while we turn around and head the other way
toward Christ, an pardon, and heaven, oh,
then, how We have to lay to the oars. You all
have your temptation You have one kind
yon another, you another, not one person es-
Gaping
It is all folly for you to say to some one
VI could not be tempted as you are" The
lion thinks that it is 50 strange that the fish
should be caught with hook. The fish think,
it is SO strange that the lion should be caught
with trap. You see some man with cold
phlegmatic temperament, and you say: 81
suppose that man has not any temptation.
Yes, as much as you have In his phlegmatiC
nature lie has temptation to Incidence and
consciousness and over-eating and drinking
a temptation to ignore the great work o
life; a temptation to lay down All obstacle il
the way of all good enterprises The temper
ment decides the styles of temptation, In
sanguine or Emphatic, you will have temptu
tion. Satan has "a grappling-hook just ltte,
for your soul. A man never lives beyond TIL,
reach of temptation You say when "A IIai
r.I,i1rl AZ